Kurt Meyer

Kurt Adolf "Panzermeyer" Meyer (23 December 1910-23 December 1961) was a Major-General of Nazi Germany during World War II. He commanded Waffen-SS units during the war in France, the Soviet Union, and Normandy.

Biography
Kurt Adolf Meyer was born on 23 December 1910 in Jerxheim in the Duchy of Brunswick, now a part of Lower Saxony. On 1 October 1929 he joined the police force of Mecklenburg to avoid a life of labor, having served as a road worker and mailman. He became known as "Panzermeyer" after slipping off of a building and fracturing his feet 20 times in a failed prank, compared to a battle tank due to his strength. In 1930 he joined the Nazi Party of the Weimar Republic and joined the SS, serving in Nazi Germany's 1938 invasion of Czechoslovakia under Heinz Guderian.

During World War II's early phases, he commanded an anti-tank company during the fighting in Poland and in October he ordered the shooting of 50 Polish Jews at Modlin in reprisals against Polish fighters, firing a squad commander when he refused to massacre the innocents. He later served in the Balkans and Greece and the invasion of France, and in his 16 May 1941 assault on Kastoria in Greece he was rewarded with the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross for his bravery in combat.

In June 1941 he gained a reputation for being brave and quick in the capture of Mariupol and a division of the Soviet Union after giving an order to "charge the guns", and in January 1942 he was awarded the German Cross in Gold for his bravery in combat. He distinguished himself in the Third Battle of Kharkov and the fights over the city that ensued in the aftermath, and during the fighting he destroyed a nearby village and killed all of its inhabitants.

In early 1944 he was moved to Belgium to defend against an anticipated Allied invasion, and fought in the campaign in Normandy. Meyer took over the division of Fritz Witt after he was hit in the face by shrapnel from a naval bombardment and played a major role in the Falaise Gap campaign in command of German Waffen-SS units. His division was bloodied in the Battle of Caen and the fighting for Carpiquet, and in August they suffered heavy losses defending Falaise from Canada's Operation Totalize. In September 1944 he was captured at Durnal (near Namur) in Belgium by the Belgian Resistance and handed over to the Allies. He was tried for the killing of 48 Allied POWs in Normandy in December 1945 in addition to giving "no quarter" orders to his troops, and was held by Canada as a prisoner until 1954, when he was released to Germany and released from there for good behavior. He became a brewer in Hagen, where he ironically served beer to Canadian soldiers. He died of a stroke in 1961 on his 51st birthday, having had to walk with a cane for many years before while only in his 40s.